PhD Mission Statement: Students should be able to:

• • Generate new ideas,
  • Convince others that their ideas are worth pursuing,
  • Do the necessary research to demonstrate that their ideas are viable, and
  • Communicate the results of their research in the public domain.

PhD Requirements

Beginning Fall 2008, students entering the PhD program must complete a Master's degree in Computer Science or a closely related field as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the PhD (those students entering the PhD program with an MS in Computer Science or a closely related field meet this requirement and should continue with the remaining PhD requirements). Under direction of the student's advisor, and with the approval of the student's PhD dissertation committee, the Master's thesis defense can be used to fulfil the paper requirement of the qualifying process.

PhD Course Requirements

*Note that if an MS has been completed and if the 30 MS hours have been accepted as transfer credit, then only 18 hours of additional coursework remain.

Justification for PhD Course Requirements:

• In a nationwide survey of about 20 PhD programs, we found that 48 semester hours is about average. Some are a little higher; some are a little lower; but most are exactly 48.
• Students should be able to take advantage of all new courses introduced into the graduate curriculum. Thus, there should be no restriction on the number of CS601R courses allowed.
• PhD students are allowed to take up to 6 credit hours of 598R in place of regular course work. If 598R was taken as an MS student and the MS credit, including the 598R, is transferred and counted towards the PhD degree requirements, then these students are limited to 3 credit hours of 598R. If no 598R credit was transferred or counted towards the PhD degree requirements, then students can take the full 6 credit hours of 598R.
• PhD students can only have 400-level credit that is transferred from an MS program.
• Some concern has been voiced about overuse of research hours. However, the "no upper limit" policy seems justified by: a) Most contracted students must be enrolled in Spring/Summer and there may be no graduate courses available, thus necessitating usage of research hours, b) The Faculty monitors PhD student progress, and any abuse of research hours without progress will lead to formal probation and eventual dismissal if not rectified, c) In general we would like to keep bothersome policies at a minimum and depend on the common sense of the MS/PhD advisor and student.

Residency Requirement

PhD students are expected to be resident for the full duration of their PhD program. Exceptions may be granted, if the advisor and graduate committee approves a leave in advance.

"Resident" means being present during most normal business hours, being actively engaged with an advisor and research group, and being part of our department's community of scholars. It does not mean 40 hours/week (usually, it is more), and it does not mean registered for some number of credit hours.

Leaves of absence of more than six months should rarely, if ever, be granted.

Students who leave without prior approval or who extend an approved stay beyond the time allotted will receive warning or marginal status at the first PhD review in which they are in violation.

The University requires PhD students to register for at least two consecutive 6-hour semesters on the BYU Campus.

Teaching Requirement

A PhD student must teach at least one Computer Science course. Make requests for teaching by indicating your desires for teaching, both the semester and course, at the time you submit your report for progress reviews. These requests should be made well in advance because the department plans teaching assignments in January for the following academic year. Teaching requests for a given academic year should be submitted during Fall semester of the prior academic year, which is eighteen months in advance for those planning to teach in Spring or Summer term.

This gives the student an opportunity to improve teaching and communication skills. In addition, this requirement provides the student an opportunity to see how he/she likes teaching and the possibility of an academic career.

PhD Progress Review

The graduate faculty of the department evaluate the progress of every PhD student on, or near, the first Thursday in October and the first Thursday in April. The date, time and place will be announced at least one week in advance. All faculty members are invited to attend, and those with PhD students are required to attend. The graduate faculty will evaluate each student's progress. The progress of a student can be declared as warning, satisfactory, marginal, or unsatisfactory. A letter or email will be sent to each PhD student after each review. An email will be sent to those students in satisfactory status. Letters will be sent to those students in warning, marginal or unsatisfactory status and will indicate what possible steps the department will take as a result. Examples of possible department actions include, but are not limited to, requiring the student to write a letter of explanation to the department explaining warning, marginal or unsatisfactory performance, suspending financial support, or immediately terminating the student's PhD program.

Our objective is to make sure that students are on track, to provide encouragement when it might be needed, to make sure no one "falls between the cracks," and to guide anyone who is not likely to succeed to something better.

In preparation for the progress review, PhD students prepare a progress report. This report is completed online. It should focus particularly on the research work accomplished (with emphasis on the last six months) and on plans and milestones for the ensuing 6 months (and beyond). The Graduate Program Assistant will remind each PhD Student about this report at least 2 weeks before the scheduled date of the Progress Review.

PhD Committee

With the help of the student's advisor, the student selects faculty members to serve as the 2nd and 3rd committee members. After these faculty members have agreed to serve on the committee, the student goes to the Graduate Coordinator. The Graduate Coordinator assigns the 4th and 5th committee members. These five faculty members constitute the student's dissertation committee.

PhD Qualifying Process

The primary purpose of the PhD qualifying process is to determine if a student has the skills necessary to continue towards a PhD degree. Secondary purposes include a demonstration of (a) breadth of knowledge at the graduate level and (b) ability to think, learn, and work independently and the ability to write and present clearly. Qualifying for PhD candidacy should occur within 18 months after enrollment in the PhD program.

New PhD Timelines

Beginning Fall 2008, new timelines will be in place for PhD students. Students entering the PhD program with a Master's degree should complete their qualifying process within one year after entering the program. Students entering the PhD program with a Bachelor's degree should complete their qualifying process within one year after completing their Master's degree.

Breadth of Knowledge

To satisfy the breadth requirement, a student must take the theory course, CS 611 (Theoretical Foundations of Computing), and one course from three different groups from the following list.

• Group 1 Systems
  • CS631 Compiler Theory and Design
  • CS660 Computer Networks
  • CS668 Wireless Data Communications
  • CS680 High Performance Computer Architecture
  • CS684 Parallel Processing
  • CS686 Advanced Model Checking
• Group 2 Graphics and Vision
  • CS557 Computer-Aided Geometric Design
  • CS621 Pattern Recognition
  • CS650 Computer Vision
  • CS655 Advanced Computer Graphics
• Group 3 Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • CS579 Natural Language Processing
  • CS613 Robust Control
  • CS670 Multi-Agent Systems
  • CS677 Bayesian Methods in Computer Science
  • CS678 Neural Networks and Connectionist Computing
• Group 4 Information Science
  • CS618 Computational Biology
  • CS676 Data Mining
  • CS651 Theoretical Foundations of Object-Oriented Data Engineering
  • CS652 Information Extraction and Integration
  • CS653 Information Retrieval
  • CS656 Interactive Software Systems
  • CS665 Advanced Computer Security
  • CS674 Quantum Computation
  **Italicized courses will not be offered in the future, but will count for students who have already taken them.
• Winter Semester 2007
  • CS 601R Middleware with Dr. Windley (Group 1)
  • CS 601R Scholarship in Computer Science with Dr. Embley (Does not count towards breadth requirement)
  • CS 601R Natural Language Processing with Dr. Ringger (Group 3)
• 601R courses may apply as well. Check with the Graduate Coordinator, the Graduate Program Assistant, or the grads e-mail list for information about the 601R courses fitting into this category.
• No 700-level courses count towards the breadth requirement.

  Ability to Think-Learn-Work-Write-Present

  Under the direction of the student's PhD advisor, a student must produce a research paper suitable for submission for publication and defend the contents of the paper in a public presentation.

  To be "suitable for submission for publication," the research paper must be a full-length manuscript (not an abstract or extended abstract) and either should have been submitted for publication or should be in a form ready to submit for review to an identified journal or conference.

  Turning an MS thesis into a paper under the direction of the student's PhD advisor is a typical way to satisfy this requirement. In this case, the thesis defense can also serve as the public presentation for the PhD qualifying process, but only if the student has (1) completed the breadth courses, (2) turned the thesis into a paper for submission, and (3) invited the PhD committee to attend the MS thesis defense.

  Based on the paper and presentation (as well as other interactions between the student and members of the student's PhD committee), the student receives an assessment of independent ability on each of five criteria: Think/Learn/Work/Write/Present. Each committee member makes an assessment for each of the criteria on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best), or N/A when a committee member has had insufficient evidence to make a determination. The score for each of these criteria and the overall score are averaged, with N/A's omitted, for the final score.

  Scale: 1 (poor), 2 (inadequate), 3 (marginal), 4 (adequate), 5 (good).

  Further explanation of Think/Learn/Work/Write/Present:
  Think: be able to independently reason out, conceive of, and envision key problems and ideas.
  Learn: be able to independently ascertain, discover, and understand significant thoughts explained in the literature and in presentations.
  Work: demonstrate persistence in producing results, both independently and under direction.
  Write: have a good command of the English language; clearly organize and articulate thoughts and ideas; show reasoning and analysis skills in the flow of discourse.
  Present: be able to clearly organize and explain ideas, motivate the work in a convincing way, explain its significance, and respond articulately and knowledgeably to questions.

  Grading

  There are three cases.

  1. A student passes if the student's average grade for the four breadth courses is 3.7 or better and the student scores an average of 4.0 or better on the ability assessment. A student who passes advances to PhD candidacy.
  2. A student fails if any one of the following happens: (1) the public presentation does not take place within 18 months after enrollment in the PhD program; (2) the average breadth-course grade is less than 3.4; or (3) the average ability assessment score is less than 3.0.
  3. A student who neither passes nor fails is considered to be marginal. For marginal students, a determination of pass or fail takes into account other evidence. Positive examples: (1) the paper, or other papers, have not only been submitted but have also been published or accepted for publication in top quality journals or conferences; (2) grades in all other courses are straight A's. Negative examples: (1) the student unnecessarily procrastinated working on the paper; (2) other grades are below average for graduate courses. Taking these other factors into consideration, the committee must decide whether to pass or fail the student.

  A student who fails once may pass and be advanced to PhD candidacy by rectifying problems before the end of the 24th month after enrollment in the PhD program. A student who fails to rectify problems by the end of the 24th month will be dropped from the PhD program.

  To rectify problems with breadth courses, for example, a student may take another course or two and use a different set of four courses to satisfy the breadth requirement. To rectify problems with producing a suitable research paper, for example, a student may prepare another paper for publication.

  Scheduling

  When a student has completed the breadth coursework and has produced the research paper, the student schedules a time for the public presentation of the paper with their committee. This is done by getting a PhD Qualifying Process Form from the Graduate Program Assistant, talking with all five committee members to find a day and time that they are all available and having them sign the scheduling form, schedule a room for the agreed upon date and time, and finally turning in the completed scheduling form to the Graduate Program Assistant, which should be completed one week to 10 days before the scheduled date. (You’re not officially scheduled until this form has been submitted.)

  Remember that the presentation should not be scheduled sooner than one week after all committee members have received a copy of the research paper. All members of the student's PhD committee must be present. The student should schedule one hour for the meeting: 25 minutes for the public presentation, 5 minutes for public questions, and up to 30 minutes for the non-public assessment.

  PhD Dissertation Proposal

  The dissertation proposal consists of three activities

  • Writing the dissertation proposal document.

  • Taking the research area examination.

  • Proposing the dissertation.

  These are distinct activities but are closely coupled. They must occur in the order listed above. The research area exam and dissertation proposal are to be scheduled at the same time. Once the dissertation proposal is written and approved, the research area exam can be taken. In a separate setting, at least one day after the research area exam, the dissertation proposal takes place. The dissertation proposal should be completed within one year after the qualifying process has been completed.

  Writing The Dissertation Proposal Document

  The dissertation proposal document consists of two parts. Part one is the Research Area Overview. Part two is the Dissertation Proposal.

  Part 1 - Research Area Overview

  The research area overview contains a bibliographic outline of the field containing the 20-30 most appropriate references. This document should be organized in an outline form that clearly describes the field. The outline should begin with an abstract that summarizes the field of research. The body of the document should be organized into outline sections. Each section should place that particular topic in the field and contain citations and discussions of the most pertinent papers related to that topic. The student presents this area overview at the research area examination and gives a cohesive, in-depth overview of the research area.

  Audience: Researchers who are well versed in computing but not active in this particular area. Typically, the 4^th and 5^th committee members will fall into this category.

  General Comments: This detailed outline should be similar to a detailed outline for a survey paper in the field.

  Part 2 – Dissertation Proposal

  The dissertation proposal should answer the following questions as they relate to your proposed work:

1. What problem do you want to solve?
2. Who cares about this problem and why?
3. What have others done to solve this problem and why is this inadequate?
4. What is your proposed solution to this problem?
5. How can you demonstrate that this is a good solution?

Audience: Researchers acquainted with the topic and considered as reviewers for a competitive government proposal. Note that the proposal is not necessarily intended to be read by faculty members not acquainted with the topic. However, as is the case for most grant proposals, we should consider the reviewer to be someone acquainted with the area, but not necessarily fully immersed in the research of that area.

General Comments: Ideally, the dissertation proposal could be turned into a real grant proposal. The requested material and format of the proposal document correspond closely (and by no accident) to the material and format of a typical grant proposal.

The dissertation proposal document contains the following:

• Abstract – 1 to 2 paragraphs summarizing the proposal.
• Introduction – 1 to 4 pages answering questions 1 and 2 above.
• Related Work – 1 to 2 pages answering question 3 above.
• Thesis statement – 1 to 2 sentences stating what is to be demonstrated in your dissertation.
• Project Description – 4 to 8 pages answering question 4 above.
• Validation – 1/2 to 2 pages answering question 5 above.
• Dissertation Schedule – about ½ page specifying dates for completion of major milestones, including potential papers and their submission dates.
• Bibliography – 2 to 5 pages containing references for all work cited.
• Signature Page

All dissertation proposals must answer the five questions and include the bulleted information above. Students should work with their advisor to determine the specific section structure of their proposal.

The following discussion provides additional detail on the content of the dissertation proposal.

Abstract – This section provides a short summary of the proposal. Estimated length is 1 – 2 paragraphs. As part of the dissertation scheduling process, the title and abstract need to be emailed to the graduate program assistant.

Introduction - This section provides the reader with enough information to understand and appreciate the thesis statement. This includes giving the motivation for the research, defining terms and formulating the problem. Often, subsections labeled “Background” and “Motivation” will be included in this section. This section typically provides answers to the questions “What problem do you want to solve?” and “Who cares about this problem and why?” Estimated length is 1 to 4 pages.

Related Work – This section contains a survey of the literature related to your thesis statement and should demonstrate to your readers that you understand the context of your work. This is a place for you to position your contribution to your specific research area relative to other work that has been done, and to state how your work builds on the previous work. This section answers the question “What have others done to solve the problem and why is this inadequate?” Estimated length is 1 to 2 pages.

Thesis statement – A clear and concise statement of what is to be demonstrated or developed in your dissertation work. A good thesis statement makes a specific claim that your readers care about. Ideally, your introduction will give your readers the background they need to understand your thesis statement and to conclude that it matters. Estimated length is 1 to 2 sentences.

The following are examples of good thesis statements from proposals in the BYU Computer Science department:

• Extending neural networks through classification-based training will provide more accurate solutions, while at the same time avoiding the main pitfalls of backpropatation networks.
• It is possible to build a semantic annotation system that is resilient to variety in web page layouts, has a faster execution speed, and has better accuracy on a large number of web pages than current semantic web standards.
• Machine learning techniques can be used in a behavioral animation system to produce cognitive models that are quick to execute, that allow virtual characters to adapt due to interaction with human users, and that can be programmed in significantly less time than currently systems.

Project Description – This section describes your proposed solution. After reading this section, your readers should believe that, if you do what you say you will do here, you will be able to objectively and convincingly defend your thesis statement. This section answers the question “What is your proposed solution to this problem?” In addition, this section outlines the specific contribution this research makes to the field of Computer Science. Estimated length is 4 to 8 pages.

Validation – This section describes the methods you will use to validate your proposed solution. This section answers the question “How can you demonstrate that this is a good solution?” Estimated length is 1/2 to 2 pages.

Dissertation Schedule – This section contains a proposed schedule for the completion of your dissertation work. The schedule should include deadlines for submission of the dissertation to your advisor, submission of the dissertation to your committee members and the dissertation defense. In addition, this section contains the titles of three or more papers that will be published from this work, along with potential submission dates and venues. You may also include other appropriate research milestones. Estimated length for this section is about ½ page.

The department and university require that you allow at least two weeks between the time you schedule the defense and the time you actually defend the dissertation. In order to schedule your final dissertation defense, your first three committee members must have read and approved the dissertation. In order to allow sufficient time, you should plan on approximately eight to ten weeks between the time you first give your completed dissertation to your advisor and the time you defend. This time is an approximate time; work with your advisor and committee to determine the actual amount of time that will be required.

Bibliography – This section contains references for cited work. References should be complete and written in a uniform style, consistent with your particular sub-area of computer science. Current journals in the student’s area can be consulted to determine appropriate reference styles. Estimated length is 2 to 5 pages.

Signature Page – This is the standard page that the committee signs upon acceptance of the proposal. Follow the format of the sample proposal signature page in the Appendix of the Computer Science Department Graduate Handbook.

Length of the Proposal – The body of the dissertation proposal should be about 12–15 pages in length. The entire proposal, including the title page, body, and signature page, is usually no longer than 20 pages.

Scheduling the Exam and Proposal

Once the dissertation proposal has been read and approved by the first three members of the dissertation committee, the student can then schedule the research area exam and the dissertation proposal.

The student gets a scheduling form (one form for both the Research Area Exam and Dissertation Proposal Presentation) from the Graduate Program Assistant, arranges for dates and times that the entire committee can meet for the research area exam and the dissertation proposal, schedules a room for the two meetings, and has the committee sign the scheduling form. Once the form is filled out and signed, it is taken to the Graduate Coordinator to be signed, then turned in to the Graduate Program Assistant. The student also emails the abstract to the Graduate Program Assistant at this time. The signed form must be turned in to the Graduate Assistant at least one week before the research area examination date.

The dissertation proposal is presented at least 1 day after the research area exam.

The research area exam and the dissertation proposal should each take approximately one hour. However, it is a good idea to allocate a time block of 1½ hours for each in case it is needed.

Research Area Examination

The primary purpose of the research area examination is to determine whether a student has good understanding of the research area in which the dissertation work falls. Secondary purposes include showing that the student can write clearly, can teach a topic well, and is generally prepared to do research in the dissertation area.

The research area exam consists of the following parts:

1. A 25 minute public presentation of the research field, plus 5 minutes for questions.
2. A 20 minute non-public question and answer period. This part of the exam should test the student's knowledge of the field and should not be cut short.
3. A committee consultation period to decide the results of the exam.

Grading

The exam is pass/fail and the results will be given to the student immediately following the research area exam, after committee consultation. From the written bibliographic outline and oral presentation, the student must have demonstrated all of the following:

• Knowledge of the field in which the research is to be conducted.
• Understanding of the principle problems and techniques used in the area.
• Understanding of the major publication outlets for work in the area.
• Ability to express him or herself clearly in a presentation setting.

A student who fails must first cancel the proposal presentation. Then, the student should overcome the deficiencies identified by the committee and reschedule both the research area examination and proposal presentation. Failure, repeated failures, and delayed rescheduling are all subject to discussion and action during subsequent PhD progress reviews.

Dissertation Proposal Presentation

The primary purpose of the dissertation proposal is to determine whether a student has established an appropriate research agenda for PhD research. Secondary purposes include showing that the student can think/learn/work independently as a researcher and can present persuasively.

The presentation of the proposed dissertation research should augment the written proposal. The presentation should be polished and practiced and should be about 25 minutes in length. The purpose is to convince the committee that the research topic is important, that the research methods are sound, and that the proposed research can be successfully completed. In short, the proposal must convince the committee that the dissertation, when complete, will make a substantial contribution to the field of Computer Science. The presentation is public, but the committee meets privately before finalizing the results.

Grading

The results are pass/fail and will be given to the student immediately following the proposal presentation, after committee consultation. As discussed, judgment will be based on the perceived suitability of the dissertation and preparation of the student. If passed, the student should proceed with the dissertation. If failed, the student will be asked to overcome the perceived deficiencies and reschedule the proposal. Failure, repeated failures, and delayed rescheduling are all subject to discussion and action during subsequent PhD progress reviews.

If the student passes the research area exam but fails the proposal, a statement to this effect, signed by the advisor and graduate coordinator, is placed in the student’s file. The student need not repeat the research area examination in a subsequent attempt to pass the proposal presentation.

A passed dissertation proposal is not a contract with the student that if the stated work is accomplished as proposed, final passing is guaranteed. Because of the longer term and dynamic nature of dissertation research, final passing of the dissertation rests with the committee at the dissertation defense.

• Dissertation

  Style Guidelines

  Dissertation format:
  

  There are specific university guidelines set for the format of the title page, copyright page, committee approval page, acceptance page, abstract, and acknowledgment page. Other formatting is left to the discretion of the department. The following links describe University minimum standards for the dissertation and provide examples and templates that can be used if desired:

• Description of minimum standards: http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_11.pdf

• Sample pages: http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_11d.doc

• AdobeTemplate for preliminary pages: http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_11a.pdf

• LaTex template for the PhD Dissertation: http://www.bouncingchairs.net/oss/latex.html#byuthesis-doc.

Please be sure to review the Minimum Standards guidelines so that your dissertation is in the correct format. With consultation of the dissertation chair, the rest of the dissertation should be written in a style and form consistent with the Computer Science literature for your research area.

• Citations:

  BYU requires a department to certify the consistency of format, captions, and references for all dissertations. Format and captions pose few, if any, difficulties, but citations are often inconsistent. (Typically, students copy citations from various places without reworking them into a consistent format.) To ensure consistency--and to avoid having to rework citations at department sign-off time-- follow the instructions in either (1) or (2) below.
  

  1. Use a top-tier journal (not a conference proceedings) in your research area as a guide. Follow the conventions as specified by the journal or exemplified in the papers.
  2. Be consistent and be as complete as possible:

  • Use the same style for the same kind of publications throughout--italics, bold, quotes, punctuation, names (full names or initials), numbering, and indentation.
  • Include all components of a citation--all author or editor names and the title and year; and, as applicable, other components such as journal name, volume, number, pages, month, publisher, city, state or country, and institution for MS theses, PhD dissertations, or technical reports.
  • Order the bibliography alphabetically by last name of first author.

  The actual organization of a traditional dissertation is flexible. The organization is similar to that of a Masters thesis, but the amount of effort is higher throughout. A typical organization would be as follows.

  • Chapter 1 - Introduces the dissertation problem and motivates it's importance.
  • Chapter 2 - A careful overview of related work, referencing similar research.
  • Chapter 3 ... n-1 - A progressive presentation of the research effort, typically including chapters on:
    • foundational material (terms, definitions, etc.)
    • the actual innovations (algorithms, theorems, models, etc.)
    • validation and analysis of results (proofs, simulations, complexity analysis, etc.).
  • Chapter n - Overviews the contributions of the dissertation and discusses possible directions for future work.
  • Appendices - Contains extended results, code fragments, documentation, etc.

  In addition to a traditional dissertation, two other alternatives are also acceptable. One is a paper collection, and the other is a book.

  Dissertation Document -- Paper-Collection Dissertation

  Audience: Researchers well acquainted with the topic.

  The dissertation should be written as a collection of papers, each supporting some part of the dissertation work. Each chapter, except the first and last, should be a paper. These papers may be in manuscript form and need not be constrained by page limits. Ideally, some of the papers would have already been published, and others would have been submitted for publication. Chapter 1 should be an introduction to the collection of papers and should provide background to motivate the work. The final chapter should summarize the work, tie the conclusions of the included papers together into a coherent whole and discuss future research issues. Additional work such as user manuals and code documentation may be included in appendices.

  Comments: Since each central chapter is a paper, we must allow for redundancies across introductions and other explanatory sections. Also, a student may wish to include a longer manuscript version of a paper published under tight page constraints either in place of the actual published paper or as an additional paper.

  Dissertation Document -- Book Dissertation

  The dissertation should be written as a book. It would normally be in manuscript form, but should have all the characteristics of a book.

  Dissertation Defense

  Audience: CS faculty and CS graduate students. Do not assume that either the faculty or the graduate students are knowledgeable in your specialty research area.

  General Comments: The presentation should be similar to one that would be made in a graduate colloquium. Again, the presentation will have ideally been practiced in front of an audience, and feedback for improving the presentation will have been taken into consideration.

  The defense is open to the public and consists of a 30 - 40 minute presentation of the candidate's research followed by questions from the audience. At the end of this public part of the defense, everyone except the committee is excused. After the committee makes a preliminary assessment and decides on further questions, if any, the candidate returns to answer the questions of the committee. Afterwards, the candidate is again excused, and the committee votes.

  The committee may vote to pass, pass with qualifications, recess, or fail. If two or more examiners vote to recess, the examination is recessed. A second and final examination is rescheduled, but not sooner than one month after the recessed examination. A second examination cannot be recessed. If two or more examiners vote to fail for either the first or second examination, the candidate fails and the graduate degree program of the student is terminated. If fewer than two vote to recess or fail, a majority vote decides between pass and pass with qualifications.

  The dissertation defense should be modeled after a graduate colloquium because this can help prepare students that need to give presentation on their dissertation research during the job interviewing process.

  In general, no dissertation should be scheduled for defense that is not of sufficient quality to pass the examination. This places the main burden of PhD quality assurance on the graduate advisor and the second and third members of the student's PhD committee.

  Dissertation Defense Instructions

  Before Scheduling:

  • Create and write up the dissertation under the supervision of your advisor.
  • Get verbal agreement from your advisor that the dissertation is in final form.
  • Get verbal agreement from your advisor and second and third committee members that the dissertation is now in final form.

  At least 2 weeks before defense (earlier is better):

  • Apply for graduation.
  • E-mail an electronic copy or bring a paper copy of your thesis to the Graduate Program Assistant, for review by interested parties. If you bring by a paper copy by, please send an electronic copy of your abstract to the Graduate Program Assistant to send out with the e-mail announcement. Send abstract to graduate@cs.byu.edu.
  • Provide copies of your dissertation for each member of your committee.
  • Arrange for a date, time, and place to present your defense. Make sure all five members of your committee can attend. The secretaries can schedule the conference room for you; campus scheduling can schedule other rooms, if necessary. Reserve one hour for the defense.
  • Pick up form 8C "Departmental Scheduling of Final Oral Examination," which you can obtain from the Graduate Program Assistant or through the Office of Graduate Studies website at http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_8c.pdf . Fill out the form with all the signatures, including the Graduate Coordinator's, and then turn it in to the Graduate Program Assistant to be entered into the BYU AIM system. (This is the critical step, which you must complete two or more weeks before the date of your defense! The software on the administrative computers at the university will not let departments schedule examinations less than two weeks from the date the information is entered on the computer.)

  Defense day or after:

  • Grade Change Authorization - All 799R hours must be changed from a T to a P. Fill out the top portion of the form and have it signed by the Graduate Coordinator. In this case, the instructor's name must be the Graduate Coordinator, not the student's advisor. This should then be given to the Graduate Program Assistant.
  • Obtain signatures of your committee, the Graduate Coordinator, and the Associate Dean of the college for the graduate committee approval and acceptance pages before making your final copies. It is usually convenient to bring these two pages to the defense, so that they can be signed immediately. Note that only one original graduate committee approval and acceptance page for signatures is required.
  • Complete Form 8d "Approval for Submission of Dissertation, Thesis, or Selected Project" (received at your defense), and obtain the necessary signatures. Unless technically or legally not possible, students must submit an electronic dissertation (ETD). Obtain the necessary signatures on Form 8d for ETD submission. Students are expected to provide a bound copy of the dissertation for both the advisor and the department; thus neither the advisor nor the Graduate Coordinator should check the box to waive their bound copy.
  • Pick up the earlier copy of your dissertation from the department library.
  • Finish any required revisions of the dissertation.

  Application for Graduation

  Contact the Graduate Program Assistant for the form to apply for graduation. Students may not apply for PhD graduation unless they have (a) completed all their coursework, (b) successfully proposed their dissertation, (c) satisfied their teaching requirement, and (d) satisfied their residency requirement. Students may defer graduation for one semester, if they did not sucessfully meet all the graduation requirements for the semester in which they applied to graduate. Afterwhich time, they will need to reapply for graduation with a new form. It does not cost to apply for graduation.